Pitaya Rice Porridge

The colour of the food you eat drastically changes your level of excitement toward eating and the amount of micronutrients you are consuming. Everyone says to eat the rainbow and I 100% vouch for that statement! I absolutely love to make my meals full of colourful foods of different textures and flavours because it makes me happy, inside and out.

In today’s recipe I’ve used Pitaya, which is a type of Dragonfruit that has a deep magenta colour to it. It has an array of health benefits as it is packed with vitamin C, B1, B2, B3 and it’s rich in calcium, iron and phosphorus. Aside from those, Pitaya is low in cholesterol, it has heart healthafying (like my word?) properties as it assists in lowering bad cholesterol and it contains monosaturated fats, its high in fibre meaning it will help with digestion and weight maintenance, it is rich in antioxidants meaning it reduces the amount of free radicals in the body and it reduces high blood pressure and maintains a regular pressure through the high fibre content. Doesn’t that make you want to eat more colour fruits and vegetables? I can’t even image how many benefits I get from my food with the amount of colours I consume in a day!

For this porridge recipe, I used rice flakes which are gluten free. They have a similar texture to oats but are a little thicker and therefore take slightly longer to cook. I find the texture so satisfying because it reminds me of eating rice pudding! It’s like eating perfectly al dente pasta. I love it. You can use oats for this obviously but I really encourage you to try out rice flakes to make life that little bit more exciting!

Pitaya Rice Porridge

Ingredients:

1/2 of a pitaya (cut into small pieces)

1/2-3/4 cups of rice flakes

1-1 1/2 cups of liquid (I used a mixture of water and macadamia nut milk)

1/2 tsp of vanilla bean extract

1/4 tsp of cinnamon

1 tbsp of chia seeds

Method:

Add all of your ingredients into a saucepan, but only add in about 1/2-3/4 of the liquid initially. Bring the porridge to the boil and let it simmer until it reaches your desired consistency. While cooking, ensure that you stir the porridge rather frequently and add in the remaining liquid gradually.